“Do you love her?”
“Michael…”
Sam ignored both the exasperation and fear in Lillian’s voice. “Yes, very much.”
“Then that’s all I need to know.” Michael held out his hand. Sam took it, not surprised at the amount of strength in the grip. If memory served him right, Michael’s Army specialty had been demolitions. “We’d better go, Mom. Uncle Gus needs his stewardess fix.”
“I appreciate a pretty woman. What’s wrong with that?”
“And we still need to drop Jen off and say our good-byes to Amanda and Gregg.”
“Sam!” Jennifer squealed, then darted around her grandmother and raced down the stairs dragging her small suitcase behind her. “I didn’t know you were coming over. Did you ride your motorcycle? Grandma says she rode it with you. Can I have a ride, too?”
“I’m returning your grandmother’s car, but next time I’ll bring the bike and give you a ride, okay?” Sam held up his hand for a high five which Jennifer returned with a huge smile.
“Uncle Mike and Uncle Gus are going to the airport in a cab. Have you ever ridden in a cab? We came home last night in one, didn’t we Grandma?”
“We certainly did.” Lillian handed the baby to Sam, then hugged Michael to her, fighting the tears that already glistened in her eyes. “Don’t stay away so long.”
“Works both ways, Mom.”
Lillian nodded. “I know neither one of you are much for writing, but call now and then, okay?”
She kissed and hugged them both, then walked with them and Jennifer to the waiting cab. Sam stood on the front step to give them some privacy, Joey snuggled in his arms. He had no siblings to share birthday visits with, but someday he knew Ben would go off to college, and maybe then he would understand how hard it was to say good-bye.
When the taxi pulled away from the curb, he joined her at the street. Slipped his free arm around her waist and pulled her close. She waved long after the cab had disappeared. “I hate good-byes,” she whispered, then turned her face into his shoulder and let the tears come.
Sam was at a loss to do anything other than hold both Lillian and the baby against him. So, that’s what he did. After ten minutes of silence, she looked up at him and smiled. He grinned, then handed her the baby and guided her back toward the house. “Okay, Lilly, what did you tell them about me?”
“I told them the truth. That you are a horrible taskmaster who makes me do intricate math problems until my eyes burn.”
Sam chuckled softly and kissed her temple. “Couldn’t remember my good qualities, huh?”
“None I wanted to share publicly.”
“How about I take you and Joey out to dinner,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear. “Then later, you can list your favorite ones for me. Privately.”
* * *
Jorgé followed the BMW. He doubted the man and woman in it knew he was driving two car lengths behind them. Talk about being oblivious. He’d been following them since they’d left her swanky house and headed into the older part of San Sebastian where he lived. Had he known they were going to Jake’s Burger Barn, he could have saved himself a couple gallons of gas and walked. He could only hope they would leave the carrier in the car and forget to lock it. No such luck. Jorgé parked his pickup out of sight, then while he kept watch, his stomach rumbling, they ate his favorite green chili burger and fries out on the sidewalk in plain view.
Jorgé needed something good to happen, especially after last night. He couldn’t remember having been so scared of anyone in his life. But that man from Mexico—not Carlos, the other one—had just sat there on the couch, casual as you please while he’d asked his questions. Quiet, soft spoken questions that had made Jorgé’s blood pump hard and his throat tighten. Then, while Jorgé had bumbled through the answers, the man had stared at him with eyes black as Hades that could tell a lie from the truth in an instant, sending shivers of panic down Jorgé’s spine.
He’d tried to explain about his wife’s death, and how his son had been taken by CPS, but the man’s eyes had drilled into his soul, and Jorgé’s words had drooled from his mouth like the excuses they were. Finally, he admitted that while he’d been able to exchange the counterfeit mask for the real one, he no longer had it in his possession. Jorgé would hear the man’s chilling words that had followed his confession until the day he died.
“I will give you one more day, my friend. Retrieve the mask and escort it across the border by noon on Monday.” Then the man had handed him a business card. “Call this number when you are at least one hundred miles into Mexico. If you fail, there will be no place on this earth where you can hide from me.”
Jorgé had been watching the house all morning, his hopes dwindling with each passing hour. Then a cab had arrived, and he’d thought maybe his luck had changed. That everyone but the woman and José would leave. But then this other man had turned up in the BMW, and now the two of them were dawdling over dessert while he could feel his life’s blood draining away.
“Come on, come on,” he muttered to himself. Then, as if hearing his command, the couple got up and returned to the car, little José asleep in the carrier the man hooked into the back seat. For a foolish moment, Jorgé considered a snatch and grab, then came to his senses. Too many people hanging around to identify him.
When the BMW left the parking lot, Jorgé figured they were going to the woman’s home where he would be waiting. After the man left, he would snatch José and take off for Mexico. Not the best plan, but all he could come up with at the moment. He hurried on ahead and parked his truck near the playground, then ran full speed toward the house on Ryder Place in time to see the car pull into the driveway followed by a Harley he would’ve given everything he had to own.
What the fuck?
Jorgé swore silently as he watched the garage door rise. “No, no, no.” But all his pleading couldn’t keep the motorcycle from following the car inside, nor stop the door from descending behind it. When the interior light went off, Jorgé assumed the man would be staying and knew that if he didn’t do something drastic, he was as good as dead.
* * *
Lillian finished feeding Joey, then laid the sleeping baby in the crib and turned to face the man waiting in the nursery-room doorway. “Thank you, Sam. I can’t remember when I’ve had a nicer birthday. I know it wasn’t easy for you, but I’m glad you came.”
“Me, too.” He stepped aside to let her pass through the door ahead of him, left it open wide enough to hear, just in case. “I think overall most of your family has accepted me.”
“I’m sorry about Amanda.”
“She loved her father. It’s understandable she would resent your loving someone else.” He tugged her into his arms. “You do love me, don’t you?”
Lillian gazed up into his handsome face and smiled. “After tonight, how can I not?” She let him kiss her before taking his hand and leading him down the stairs to the kitchen. She wasn’t quite ready to resume the sexual part of their budding relationship. At least, not until she’d had a chance to unwind from the weekend.
“I should explain about Amanda.”
“That’s not necessary.” Sam reached for two wine glasses hanging from the rack under the cabinet, filled them and handed one to her.
“Thank you.” She smiled softly. “Most of the time, Rusty just forgot about her. He treated her so carelessly, as if she had no feelings that would be easily wounded by his indifference.”
“And you? Is that how he treated you?”
Lillian sipped at her wine and nodded. “Yes, I suppose so.”
Sam took the glass from her hand, set it on the counter and pulled her into his arms. “I’m not Russell Moore, Captain in the U.S. Navy.”
When he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small velvet-covered box, Lillian’s heart raced and her throat constricted. “Sam…” was all she could manage before he took hold of her left hand and went down on one knee.
Sam smiled. “I’m simply Samuel Wei
ss, math professor extraordinaire, but I promise to love you, to honor and cherish you, for the rest of my life.” He opened the box, then removed the ring and offered it to her. “Will you marry me?”
“Oh, Sam.”
Lillian stared first at the sapphire set in a ring of diamonds, then at the man waiting at her feet for an answer. She withdrew her hand gently from his, her breath held so tight in her chest, she thought she might faint. To dispel the fear she saw spring immediately into his eyes, she brushed her fingers along his check. This was the moment of truth. She could remain forever in the past or step into the future with Sam. Heart racing, she stepped back, then removed the gold wedding band she had worn for twenty-nine years and placed in on the counter next to her wine glass.
“Yes, Sam, I will marry you.” Her fingers trembling, she held out her left hand to Sam, then smiled while he slipped the ring onto the third finger. “It fits perfectly.”
Sam chuckled, pressed his lips to her palm. “Of course. I may not be able to command a destroyer, but I do know how to measure the circumference of a circle.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sam drew Lillian into his arms, held her body tight against him. She had said yes, and he didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified. Her wedding ring sat silently on the counter barely two feet away. He closed his eyes, glaringly aware of the change he was asking her to make. She had spent twenty-nine years with her late husband. Even if the man had treated her shabbily, he’d been her husband, and she had worn his ring as a token of their marriage.
Don’t think such thoughts, you idiot. She said yes.
His gaze locked on her face, Sam smiled and lifted her fingers to his lips. “I love you, Lillian. More than I ever thought was possible for me to love.”
“Oh, Sam. I think my heart will burst if you don’t kiss me.”
He let go of her hand, lifted her chin and pressed his lips to hers. Gently at first, then as the temperature inside him began to rise, more insistently until the taste of her incited that primal urge all men share. He broke the kiss, his cock hard and hungry for the woman in his arms. “Let’s go upstairs, or so help me, Lilly, I’ll have to take you here on the kitchen floor.”
The quiet smile on her face morphed into a sly grin while her fingers worked his top three shirt buttons open. “I don’t think the floor would mind.”
Oh, God, she meant it, and if she didn’t hurry, he was going to hyperventilate. When she pulled the shirttails from his trousers, then ran her cool fingers through the hair on his chest, he thought his whole body would ignite. “I want you so much.”
“Sshh,” she whispered, then while he watched silently, she drew her sweater over her head, then unhooked her bra and let both items drop to the floor. “I want you, too, Sam. I want to make love to you.”
Sam’s mouth grew dry, his throat tight. His breathing soared to near frantic pitch while she unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them, along with his briefs, down his legs. Never had making love meant so much, or had him so impatient to get naked with this woman. “Touch me, Lilly. I’m on fire for you.”
“Soon.”
While he watched, she undressed, dropped each piece of her clothing at his feet. His heart pounded to the rhythm of her striptease, his cock hard and aching. Who knew that inside this quiet, sedate woman was a wild, sexy vixen, standing naked before him with only a gold locket on a chain around her neck and his engagement ring on her finger.
“Oh, Lilly, you take my breath away.” As she approached him, Sam forced himself to relax, let her lead, though the wait was killing him. Her lips scorched his skin where she left a trail of kisses across his chest. The tips of her fingers circled his nipples, her thumbs brushed the point. “Woman, you’re killing me.”
“Do you really mind, Sam?” she murmured, sliding to her knees.
When her tongue skimmed along the length of his penis, Sam grabbed for the edge of the counter behind him to remain upright. Nearly lost his sense of time and space when her mouth closed over him. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought he could feel like this, need like this. Want like this. He closed his eyes, feared his legs would give way while her hot mouth devoured him. “Please stop. I want to be inside you.” When she released him, he knelt in front of her, then lay down on the floor and drew her to him. “Ride me, Lilly.”
The apprehension on her face disappeared, replaced by a soft smile of anticipation. She mounted him, took him deep inside her wet and welcoming passage. He clutched her waist. She moved slowly at first, then more rapidly. “Do you like this?” she whispered eagerly.
Sam could only nod, for speech at this moment was totally out of the question. He pulled her mouth to his, plundered inside with his tongue in rhythm with his cock inside her. The hair that framed her face tickled his cheeks. The pace surged to a crescendo. His heartbeat pulsed in his ears. He wanted to shout his love to the heavens. Climaxing, he emptied himself into her.
They lay still for several moments. Maybe it was longer, he couldn’t be sure.
Lillian giggled in his ear. “Do you think I’ll blush every time I come into my kitchen?”
“I don’t know about you, but I will.” Sam heaved the sigh of a man having reached nirvana and lived to tell about it. He kissed her nose. “I’m not sure I can get up. Or that I want to.”
“I’ve never done this before.”
“Had sex on the kitchen floor?”
She laughed shyly and shook her head. “That, too, but I meant I’ve never… been on top.”
Sam didn’t know why that pleased him so immensely. Probably just that it was something new they had shared together. He wouldn’t let himself think he might be jealous of a dead man. “Well, soon-to-be-Mrs. Weiss, you did that very well for a beginner. In fact, I’d say that was definitely worth an A.”
Lillian leaned down and crossed her arms on his chest. “I remember the first time you kissed me.”
“So do I.”
“I came home thinking about sex.”
Sam played with a curl of her hair. “So did I.” When her cheeks turned rosy, he had to ask. “Was I involved in your thoughts about sex?”
“Sort of.”
“Just sort of.” Sam raised his eyebrows and waited.
Lillian smiled. “I thought about how sex, just sex, was like getting a C. That it needed something more, something special, to make it good enough for an A.”
“Love, you mean?” When she merely nodded, he caught hold of her chin. “So, how did I fair on this grading scale?”
“I thought neither one of us would be happy with anything other than an A.”
“And are you happy, Lilly?”
She ran her fingers through his hair, then gave him a whisper-soft kiss on his mouth. “Oh, yes, Professor Weiss. Completely.”
“Me, too.” Sam grinned. “But just to be sure this grading scale of yours is accurate, how about we go upstairs and take another test.”
* * *
Was it possible his luck could get any worse?
Jorgé paced along the row of oleander bushes that separated the woman’s house from her neighbors. The sickeningly sweet odor of the blossoms permeated the warm night air and nauseated him, bringing back memories of hot, muggy nights with the windows wide open. Lying in bed, sweating to the overpowering, syrupy fragrance of oleander flowers and hearing his mother remind him over and over again that every part of the plant was poisonous. If every part was so toxic, why not the damned smell?
When the man didn’t leave and the lights went out downstairs, Jorgé knew he was in for a long night of waiting. He glanced up at the second floor where a light went on, then dimmed. At least someone was getting sex tonight, he thought. He hadn’t had any since… Fuck. Since he’d forced Mariah.
Jorgé sat down on the ground and wrapped his arms around his knees, his truck keys dangling between his fingers. Even if he went to CPS first thing in the morning, it could take days for them to return his son to him. The man wanted him acro
ss the border by noon. That meant he had to get the carrier tonight. Jorgé closed his eyes. His life had become one huge pile of shit, but if he could get the mask into Mexico, get the money the two men had promised him, then maybe, just maybe, he would still have a chance at a life.
* * *
Lillian lay nestled in Sam’s arms, deliciously weak from their lovemaking, her fingers entwined with his. “I never imagined in all my wildest dreams that I would ever feel like I do right now.” She gazed into his dark brown eyes, heavy with the need to sleep, yet unwilling to give in to it. “I love you, Sam.”
He tugged her to him. “Not sorry that you ended up in my class?”
“Not a bit. You?”
Sam chuckled. “Best day of my life. Even if I was a bit of an ass.” He lifted her left hand. “But you forgave me,” he said, then kissed the ring on her third finger.
Lillian held her breath. “You saved my life,” she finally managed.
“As you did mine. I never thought I would ever be this happy. I will always love you, Lilly. Always.”
When he drew her close, his eyes a dark, deep pool, sizzling with need, she nearly melted in his arms. A soft whimper floated into the room from the speaker beside the bed. Grew louder as they gazed at each other. “I’m sorry,” Lillian whispered.
Sam shook his head and released her from his embrace. “Don’t be.”
She was aware of him standing in the doorway to the nursery, the heat of his gaze on the back of her neck while she changed Joey’s diaper, then picked him up and cuddled him to her. “I’m afraid he’s wide awake.”
“Ben was a lot like that.”
“Michael, too. Though I’m sure he doesn’t remember it.”
When Sam went quiet, she turned around to face him. “Sam, is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been so caught up in us, I forgot about Ben.” When he finally smiled, it was tentative. “We had quite a talk on the way to his mother’s house. We don’t usually have that luxury when’s he’s riding behind me on the motorcycle.”
An Equation For Murder Page 21